mods

We've brought you plenty of gadgets that ColorWare has splattered with their paints before, ranging from Nexus Ones to Macs, there's nothing that they won't color for you. And, after today, that statement has never been more true. They've finally added a whole new addition to their coloring options, going for something a bit more stationary, and in your home. Want to paint up that brand new HDTV you just bought? Good, because now you can.

We'll be the first to admit; heavy use of the HTC EVO 4G's WiMAX connectivity will see the battery gauge drop in short order, so anything that makes it easier to top up the juice has to be a good thing. That's why YouTuber infinitemods' DIY hack to get the Sprint EVO 4G working with a Palm Touchstone inductive charger is so impressive: it allows for easy drop-and-charge powering of the smartphone, just as you'd get with the Pre Plus or Pixi Plus.

With the iPhone 4 and Motorola XT720 both coming to market with native 720p HD video capture, it's time for the Nexus One to catch up or give up; happily, thanks to xda-developers, a new firmware hack can grant the Google Phone high-def camcorder skills. Currently available for Nexus One handsets running Android 2.1, and with a test version for those running 2.2 Froyo on their phone, it allows for recording at up to 1280 x 720 resolution.

Eken's M001 Android MID certainly had promise - a bargain price tag will do that - but the end result, particularly dire battery life, left us cold. Still, that's nothing a little elbow grease, soldering and time investment won't address, and that's just what Carnivore from the Slatedroid forums has done. His M001 now has a USB hub, two new full-sized USB ports, 8GB of integrated storage and - most impressively - a total 5,200mAh of battery good for 7-12hrs of runtime.

Dell's Streak Android MID - which we unboxed last Friday - has already been rooted, despite only being on the market for a matter of days. The 5-inch tablet actually turns out to be one of the easiest to hack, with Paul from MoDaCo pushing out a new Superboot ROM (based on the standard Streak firmware) that automatically roots the Streak when run for the first time.

Take a Korg Monotron analog synth, throw in an iPad running Korg's excellent iElectribe app and then use an Arduino to tie the whole thing together: you're not only hitting some of the geekiest keywords around these days, but getting an awesome, glitchy, electronic music mangling setup. YouTuber Denkitribe has been circuit bending his Monotron, coming up not only with the system described above, but one in which the accelerometer and joystick of a Wii Nunchuk are used to control the battery-powered synth.

The HTC EVO 4G isn't even in the hands of gleeful preorder customers yet, but when Google handed the WiMAX-toting handset out to the developers at Google IO last week they must've expected some early hacking action. Assuming so, they won't be disappointed: three Android developers have put their heads together and come up with a root solution for the EVO 4G in just a few hours, quickly installing the standard su tool.

Unfortunately for anyone else with an EVO 4G they're not yet talking about the technical details of the root, which means we'll have to wait a little longer to try it out ourselves. Our guess is that, once the handset is more generally available, we'll quickly see various hacked ROMs and modifications.

Ever since we saw Android running on an iPhone 3G we've been itching to try it ourselves, and - somewhat appropriately timed for Google IO this week - hacker David Wang has just released everything you'll need. It's been polished a little since we saw it last, though it's still not ready for everyday use; Wang is yet to implement power management, so a fully-charged iPhone will last just an hour running Android. Ironically it's not like you'll see massive speed in return for that power-guzzling, since it's also apparently "usable" but "won't be fast".

Love the HTC HD2 hardware but hate Windows Mobile? A full port of Android for the smartphone isn't quite ready yet, but the gang over at xda-developers are certainly one step closer to it. They've managed to get Linux to boot on the smartphone, and to load - and play - a 720p HD video from the command line. Currently they're not having much luck with a GUI, but the hack paves the way for a full install of Android on the 4.3-inch Snapdragon-based device.